Syracuse University named top party school for 2014

Syracuse University has claimed the title of nation’s top party school.

The No. 1 ranking was revealed Monday by The Princeton Review based on a nationwide survey of 130,000 students.

Syracuse’s student newspaper ranked second best among the 379 colleges surveyed, and its sports scene, rated third best, likely helped the party mood.

University officials were disappointed by the private university’s showing in the 2015 edition of “The Best 379 Colleges.” The book contains 62 top-20 lists gauging student satisfaction with professors, financial aid awards, athletic facilities, food and other factors.

“We do not aspire to be a party school,” Syracuse said in a statement citing its “long-established reputation for academic excellence with programs that are recognized nationally and internationally as the best in their fields.”

Rounding out the top 5 party schools were: the University of Iowa (last year’s winner), the University of California-Santa Barbara, West Virginia University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Repeating at the top of the “stone-cold sober” schools was Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Syracuse’s central New York neighbor Colgate University topped the list of most beautiful campuses. The university of Chicago was found to have the best college library, and students voted Virginia Tech’s dining hall offerings as the best campus food.

Other No. 1 spots: Stanford University in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender-friendly category; Elon University in North Carolina as best-run college; Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, for its dorms; and Yale University for best newspaper.

“Our purpose is not to crown one college ‘best’ overall or to rank these distinctive schools 1 to 379 on any single topic,” said Princeton Review senior vice president Robert Franek. “We present our 62 ranking lists to give applicants the broader base of campus feedback to choose the college that’s best for them.”

Northeastern University in Boston took the No. 1 spot on the list of best career services. Oregon’s Reed College topped the list of best professors, and the happiest students were found at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, according to the rankings.

An average of 343 students per campus were asked 80 questions about their schools and themselves during the 2013-14 and/or previous two school years. With no affiliation to Princeton University, the Natick, Massachusetts-based Princeton Review has published “The Best 379 Colleges” since 1992.